Why does almost every thread started in this forum go through this very same process where people say that nobody should be discussing it until all information is released? The fact is, most information never gets into the hands of the general population. I believe that we once again come back to emotions however I cannot say that for sure. The bottom line is, this forum is here so that people who do not know for sure what happened with a particular incident, can speculate as to what happened to try to come up with scenarios that may just some day help someone out. All of this is to be done with flaming the living or the deceased. It is also to be done with compassion for those who come here with what they believe to be helpful information. If information is only assumed to be correct, then it really should be presented as speculation only so that there is less confusion. However, this forum is about the breakdown and speculation of incidents so that people can learn from other's misfortune.
It seems likely that a significant number of people reading and posting in
Accidents and Incidents probably aren't regulars, and wouldn't be aware of how to peacefully co-exist here. Uncle Pug's sticky is a start, but it mainly talks about what to post and not post, and not the "how". Since this forum tends to be about fairly emotional topics, how about a few recommendations for people visiting this forum for the first time.
- State your sources: Names don't have to be given, but explain how you got the information, including possible qualification and skill levels of the intermediaries. To use the current thread as an example, it appears one of the primary posters got information third or fourth hand, and some of the intermediaries were not knowledgeable enough in cave diving to pass on information ungarbled.
- Hypothesizing: Like accident investigations in other areas (such as airplanes) a lot of dive accidents may be the results of chains of problems or errors, and the details may only ever be known to the unfortunate victim. The value to the living of analyzing accidents is learning from both what did go wrong as well as what could have. Hypothesizing is not only ok in this forum, but the rule, since that's what accident analysis often is. Just clearly distinguish between known facts of an incident, hypothesized facts, definite conclusions, and alternate scenarios (things that may not have happen, but there are still important lessons to be learned).
- Not discussing things until there's an official accident report: In my mind, saying this in itself is almost a violation of the implicit forum rule. The purpose of this forum is to exchange information about accidents, and discuss how to avoid future casualties. It just has to be done respectfully, especially when the discussion starts talking about other theoretical problems which may not have had anything to do with what happened in the original incident. Have consideration of the victims, and clearly state when you're theorizing. (See also previous.)
Also, most dive accidents are never well analyzed in official circles, due to lack of expertise or resources, especially in non-industrialized countries without strong legal protections.
- If you're upset about the incident, consider whether you really want to post here. Yes, first hand information (or as near as is available) is valuable to all who want to learn all possible lessons from an accident. On the other hand, the relatively dispassionate third parties picking for details are frequently hard for those more directly involved in an accident to handle. Accident analysis looks for errors and discrepancies in accounts, and it's hard for most people to be on the receiving end in what is already an emotional situation.
Anyone think of any other recommendations? Would it be helpful to spawn this off into a separate thread or collectively generate a follow-up posting for Uncle Pugs sticky?
Also, since these issues seem to come up in a large fraction of threads, what's the best way for us to point newcomers to the sticky, since we're probably going to have to do it almost every time. Maybe someone posting a gentle pointer to the 'special forum rules'? I'm guessing the majority of newcomers are finding specific incident threads, and aren't even seeing rules posted in forum stickies.
Thanks
